Trials
by Sidelong
Summary: Written to run parallel to Squall's SeeD exam in Dollet, but it quickly sprouts off into WHOA! an original plotline. Original characters, all copyright ME, by the way. Violence 'n (strong) language, so don't read if you're offended by that kinda stuff...
1. Waking

Morning light, edged with silver and cold weather, filtered in through the blinds. It was spring, but still chilly enough to turn breath into fog in the morning. The sun was rising, and the sky was pearly gray edged with rose. Beautiful, sure, if you liked morning. Eiada winced, rolled over, muttered "Son of a fucking bitch" into her pillow. She weighed, as she did every morning, the necessity of filling out reams of Garden paperwork against transferring into a room with a west-facing window. Probably not worth it, she decided, cracking her eyes open. She'd lose more sleep filling out every letter of her personal information than she did waking up at dawn every day.  
  
(In a perfect world,) she thought, (they'd have my personal information on file somewhere. All I'd have to do is write down my student ID number, my request, and my justification, and they'd accept or deny it. Very simple. But no, why do that when I could spend all my free time filling out nice sheets of high-quality paper with the Balamb Garden logo watermarked on them?)  
  
On her nightstand beside the bed, her digital clock hummed thoughtfully to itself, then went into its alarm sequence.  
  
"Hey." Eiada's own voice, crackly with static and bad recording quality, filled the room. "You're awake. Get up. Remember what today is?"  
  
Hyne, she was a smartass. Eiada squinted into the pillow, trying to remember what was so damned important. It hovered on the very edge of her mind.  
  
"Here's a clue. The transport leaves for wherever you're going in one hour exactly."  
  
Eiada made an inarticulate noise, shoved herself out of bed, and began groping frantically in the dark for her pants.  
  
"Suggestion: Shower before you change." She could swear the alarm had added a certain. smirkiness that she hadn't recorded the night before. "You don't want to pay twice the dry cleaning bills because you got into your field uniform smelling like ass."  
  
In the tiny shoebox of the room, Eiada found pants and towel in one long sweep of her arm across the floor. She yanked her pajamas off, wrapped the towel around herself, and skidded out into the main room.  
  
"By the way." the recording followed her out into the hall, growing fainter and fainter. "Good luck on your SeeD exam."  
  
By some miracle she managed to fight her way through the crowds of junior classmen at the breakfast bar and acquire a cup of yogurt and a grain bar. Maybe it was the still-wet hair flinging little splashes all over whoever got in her way. Maybe it was the pair of sheathed knives, one strapped to her hip, one across her back. Maybe it was the look on her face.  
  
"Get out of the way." she snarled at two absolutely tiny children in front of the coffee dispenser. They stared up at her, mute, pale, terrified. "Shoo!" she barked and they scattered, an involuntary whimper escaping one.  
  
The yogurt was gone in two gulps, the grain bar shoved in her skirt pocket, and the coffee laced with sugar and bolted down. Throwing the paper cup in the general direction of the recycler, Eiada began to walk as fast as the goddamn skirt would let her. (If I make SeeD today, I'm never wearing this field uniform again, I swear by Hyne.). The paced walk became a jog through the circular elegance of the air-conditioned main hall, past the adjacent hallway to the dorms, a run up the flourescent hallway to the garage, and a skidding halt under the nose of a clipboard-bearing full SeeD.  
  
"Student ID number?" the woman asked, pen poised and eyes condescendingly tolerant of Eiada's near-absence.  
  
Eiada pulled herself into a neat salute, heels clicking together and right thumb brushing her temple, then held herself at attention. Sometimes the best apology for being a bad student was to be a good trainee. "Student ID one five nine seven four three six, Connolly, Eiada, ma'am."  
  
"Connolly, Eiada." The business end of the pen trailed down the clipboard, made a small notation. "Squad D. Ah." A light smile crossed the woman's dark chocolate face. "That's my squad." She turned on one heel, pen pointing at a standard Balamb G car- electric yellow, shaped like a fat teardrop. Eiada winced involuntarily. "That far transport, Trainee. I'll join you shortly."  
  
"Yes ma'am." Eiada saluted again, dashed off to the car. Sincerely hoping she wasn't the last person in Squad D to arrive, she knocked timidly on the rear hatch. After a moment and some fumbling from inside the car, the latch popped free. Eiada shoved the door the rest of the way open, scrambled inside.  
  
It was dark in the passenger compartment, but lights lining the floor and ceiling activated automatically when she shut the door, filling the tiny cabin with a warm white glow. Two lean figures sprawled in a distinctly masculine way across the padded benches lining the compartment- one tall and dark haired, the other scrawny and, from the look of his face, barely old enough to qualify for the SeeD exam.  
  
"Hi." The younger said, eyes playing perfunctorily across Eiada, sizing her up. "Squad D?"  
  
"Yeah, hi." Eiada offered her hand. "Eiada Connolly."  
  
"Arin Tayler." The young man grinned, which made him look even younger. His skin was a very light olive gold, his hair spilling away from the skull in golden-brown corkscrews. He had hazel eyes, the brown so light it was almost gold. "Put your stuff behind the seat."  
  
Eiada slid the rest of the way into the car, plopped down between Arin and the back door. Craning around backwards, she slid her knives between a healer's satchel and a longsword behind the seat cusion. She twisted back to face the hand of the second boy. His face was triangular and honest. His eyes were blue and green.  
  
She shook the offered hand. "Eiada Connolly."  
  
He smiled politely. "Roen Zyras. Squad Leader."  
  
His accent was Galbadian. "Transfer student?"  
  
"Yeah." The smile faded and he sat back. "I moved here from Deling City."  
  
"I was born in Winhill."  
  
He nodded, expressionless.  
  
(Okay.) Eiada turned back to Arin. "That your sword, or are you the healer?"  
  
"I'm the healer." Arin smirked. "I get the fun job. Laughing when you two hurt yourselves and then fixing you up."  
  
Roen snorted softly, his opinion of the likelihood of hurting himself plain. Eiada smiled. These two seemed nice enough. Hopefully they'd be easy to work with as well. It wasn't often that a candidate failed the exam because of personality conflicts within their squad, but Eiada didn't even want the possibility to come up. Look at that blond, the head of the Disciplinary Committee- Something Almasy. You could only take the SeeD exam between the ages of fifteen and twenty, and Almasy had already failed twice, once because of some bullshit grandstanding stunt that endangered the rest of his squad, once because of deliberate insubordination. He was eighteen. His time was running short.  
  
None of that for her. Eiada just wanted to coast along quietly and pass with middle marks, not to be a hero. She had enough trouble doing well when she was the only person depending on her to succeed. If it was for money, or for someone she didn't know very well, she could do it. Thank Hyne they'd assigned someone else to lead- now she could just keep her head down and excel where she was ordered.  
  
Yeah, she was definitely better off than Almasy. Eiada swallowed. "But we're just Trainees. Do you really think they'd put us in a position where we'd need to get fixed up?"  
  
Arin shrugged elaborately. "I dunno, dude, I just heard there's some pretty hardcore stuff goes on in the exam. It's all for real."  
  
"You heard correctly, Arin." The driver's door popped open and the short Instructor Eiada had spoken to hopped into the seat. "You'll have ample opportunity to show off your skills today." Buckling herself in, she turned to face them. "I'm Instructor Merina Dobbs. I'll be your supervisor today, and I'll be with you the entire way. If you have a problem you can't handle, you can call me. Just keep in mind you're being scored throughout the exercise, so any action that implies you can't take care of yourselves and each other in the field will get you docked points. Now. I have Tayler, Connolly, and Zyras on my list. Zyras, you're leading today?"  
  
He nodded affirmatively. "Yes, ma'am."  
  
"Good." She nodded back. "Anyone have questions?"  
  
"Ma'am?" Next to Eiada, Arin craned his hand like he was in class. At her acknowledgement, he slumped back into the cushion. "Where are we going, ma'am?"  
  
Instructor Dobbs crooked an eyebrow at him. "You'll find out when we leave Balamb."  
  
Eiada glanced at Roen and Arin. Neither of them looked like they had known they were going out of the country. Eiada bit her lower lip. (Why?) The only reason she could think of was. (We're going on a real SeeD mission. Someone hired the SeeDs and we're tagging along for the ride.)  
  
"Any other questions?"  
  
Numb, Eiada shook her head. Roen did the same, but Eiada barely noticed. All the nerves that had been suppressed in the flurry of activities that morning had hit her in one strong offensive push. She suddenly wished she hadn't had breakfast after all.  
  
(Get it together, Eiada. You should have seen this coming. A simple review of our training or a controlled exercise wouldn't have been enough. We need to know, now, if we can handle being in real combat, making real decisions that could get real people killed. Or save real lives.)  
  
"Good." Instructor Dobbs looked satisfied. "Let's get going."  
  
The car rumbled to life and Eiada exchanged nervous smiles with Arin. Roen shifted uncomfortably- probably more from tension than anything else. The car was utterly, perfectly silent.  
  
With a lurch and a grumble from the engine, they bounced out of the garage and into the wan morning sunlight. Eiada resisted the urge to look back at her knives. She didn't want to kill anyone today, but she would if she had to. She was perfectly clear on that.  
  
(Okay.) She took a steadying breath, another. (This is going to be okay. I'm not stupid. I just need to hold it together, and I won't die. Choking now could get me killed. So I won't choke. End of story.)  
  
She stretched slowly, deliberately trying to distract herself.  
  
"Soooo-" "Is anyone else-"  
  
She and Arin stopped, grinned shamefacedly. "Go ahead," Eiada suggested.  
  
"Oh-" he smiled. "I was gonna ask if anyone else was nervous."  
  
She chuckled. "You bet."  
  
"Hell yes." Roen added emphatically.  
  
"But we can do it, right?" Arin looked at them timidly, suddenly seeming very young. "I mean, we'll be okay, won't we?"  
  
"If you're asking if we'll pass, no guarantees." Roen said quietly. "But it's not like there won't be other opportunities, especially for someone your age."  
  
"How old are you, Arin?" Eiada asked.  
  
Arin blushed. "Fifteen. I mean- Just turned sixteen last Sunday. How old are you guys?"  
  
"Seventeen," Eiada said.  
  
"Eighteen."  
  
"Oh. Okay."  
  
"Don't worry." Eiada tried a smile. It worked okay. "We'll get through all right. SeeD candidates do this every year."  
  
Arin looked relieved. "Hey, yeah! No big deal, then!"  
  
Eiada settled back in her seat, caught Roen nodding approvingly at her. She gave him a half-smile. She had the feeling Arin was going to need some reassurance, that he was unused to being the youngest. Okay, she could do that, if it helped hold the Squad together.  
  
Roen must have agreed. "Okay?" he asked Arin.  
  
"Yeah, I guess." The younger boy smiled. "How're you doing, Fearless Leader Guy?"  
  
The car took a bump on the road a little too fast. The three students, seatbeltless, flew into the air, making inarticulate noises of surprise. Except for Roen, the tallest. Eiada heard his head connect with the ceiling from across the compartment, followed closely by his curses. The words 'Fearless Leader Guy' combined with the look on his face post-impact made her crack up. Arin followed suit.  
  
"Come on." Roen complained. "You guys, not cool. You guys?"  
  
Eiada shook her head, still laughing.  
  
"Dude-" Arin managed. "That was priceless."  
  
"Hey-" Roen paused, thought for a minute. "Thanks."  
  
They were still laughing when the car bumped to a halt in Balamb harbor. 


	2. The SeeD Exam

Eiada settled herself on the ribbed, plush cushion of the seat for the umpteenth time, trying to relax and get comfortable. The waves outside made the whole cabin rock and shudder as the Balamb Garden scout boat tried to make better time than the tidal patterns allowed. Eiada swallowed hard as they hit a particularly rough wave. It wasn't that she was seasick, really- she liked boats, and even though Winhill wasn't nautical capital of the world, it wasn't like she'd never been on one before. Seasickness had never been a problem for her. She was just. twitchy. It didn't help that there were no windows, that she would have to go up into the freezing air and salt spray to get a sense of perspective.  
  
(Count your blessings,) she reminded herself. Sitting across from her and to her right, Roen looked positively green. (I'd rather be nervous and bored than nauseous right before I have to fight.)  
  
"Gosh, this is exciting," Arin sighed directly across from her. In the more spacious cabin of the boat, he had the room to stretch his youthful legs out to their fullest, which he did now. "Be a SeeD, travel the world, and don't see any of it because you're stuck inside a windowless metal tube for hours."  
  
"Hour." Eiada corrected. "Not even an hour."  
  
"At least Instructor Dobbs isn't here." the young man sighed. "I think she'd have us all sitting at attention and perfectly silent."  
  
Eiada conceded the point. "She doesn't look like she'd put up with much."  
  
"She's my homeroom teacher." Roen volunteered quietly. "It's pretty hardcore."  
  
Arin snorted knowingly.  
  
"I like her." Eiada surprised herself by saying. Roen glanced up at her, nodded.  
  
"I hope you all had a chance to rest." The door to the officer's cabin slid open and Instructor Dobbs came in, her militaristic gait seemingly unaffected by the rolling sea around them. "We land in twenty minutes."  
  
As the three SeeD candidates sprang to attention, Eiada began to think of all the places a SeeD scout boat could get to at top speed in one hour. Arin beat her to it. "Dollet?"  
  
Instructor Dobbs nodded approvingly at him. "Good call, trainee. At ease- be seated." In the rustles and thumps of three teenage bodies hitting cushion at various speeds, she moved to the back of the room. There was a large television screen set into the wall. She pressed a button on the bottom and the screen flickered to life. A map of the world was displayed- when she tapped a shining dot northwest of the shining dot that represented Balamb Garden, the screen zoomed in. The caption 'Dollet Dukedom Capital' ran along the bottom of the screen, which displayed a coastline and the city of Dollet. Turning to face them, Instructor Dobbs fell into parade rest and cleared her throat.  
  
"Seventy-two hours ago, Dollet was attacked by Galbadian troops." She began. "Late last night the Dukedom Parliament voted unanimously to call in SeeD. They requisitioned nine full SeeDs and as many trainees as we could spare.  
  
"In twenty minutes, at 1830, we will land at Lapin Beach. Squad D is a medical squad. We will be joining Squad C on the beach and, if possible, inside the town. Our objective is to aid any wounded we can and to protect those who are too badly injured to fight. Upon arrival, SeeD candidates Connolly and Zyras will join the perimeter defenses while candidate Tayler and I will join the team of healers working within the perimeter. Connolly and Zyras, your mission is to keep any enemy troops or released monsters from penetrating the perimeter. In the event of an invasion, you are to deal with the enemy by any means necessary. Candidate Tayler, you will prepare for a fight as well.  
  
"Our contract expires two days from now at the absolute latest, but, of course, the withdraw command takes priority. Any questions?"  
  
There was perfect silence. The butterflies doing aerial stunts in Eiada's stomach had fused into one massive knot. Arin was sweating; she could see it gleaming on his forehead from across the room. Roen was less green and more pale.  
  
Instructor Dobbs nodded, face blank. "Good."  
  
She left the screen on, sat down on the same bench as Eiada. Eiada tried to shut out everything but the screen, the little green pixels giving information that was, she realized as she watched, being updated moment by moment via satellite. Tiny red and blue blips of troops, squads, and individual officers and SeeDs danced jerkily across the screen. Most of the fighting seemed to be concentrated near the far west of the city, where the narrow mountain pass let into the cove where Dollet had been built. (Why Dollet?) Eiada caught herself wondering. (I mean, sure, so it's got a great natural harbor, but so does Balamb and Galbadia happily trades through them. Maybe it got tired of paying tariffs?) The thought brought a wry smile to her lips. (What a stupid thing to go to war for.)  
  
Of course most of the Galbadian troops were filtering in through the pass to Dollet, but there seemed to be some ominous red 'enemy' dots in the ocean outside of Dollet. Eiada swallowed. (If they dock anywhere near us, we're going to get fresh Galbadian troops right on top of the medical camp.) She couldn't remember what Galbadian policy for dealing with enemy wounded was, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that it had little to do with fresh bandages and hot bowls of soup.  
  
Far in the distance, she heard a grenade explode, the explosion echoing off the water and approaching land.  
  
It seemed like she blinked and Instructor Dobbs was saying "Strap in. It may get rough from here."  
  
Eiada had barely sinched the seatbelt across her lap when the scout craft struck something big and sturdy- and ran right over it. There was a moment of freefall in which she wondered whether they had been blown way up into the air. When the sea accepted them again a few seconds later, Arin made a squeaking noise that showed exactly how young he was, Roen swore, and Eiada concentrated on not throwing up.  
  
Instructor Dobbs braced herself against the seat. "We'll be coming up on the beach in about one minute."  
  
She didn't seem nervous at all. Eiada tried to take comfort in that. She could hear artillery all around them now, and it seemed a miracle nothing went off close enough to take out their boat. She swallowed a mouthful of bile, convinced that throwing up all over her squad wouldn't possibly gain her points on the exam.  
  
The entire boat shuddered, metal screaming, and Eiada clenched her teeth. (We're hit! We're gonna-!)  
  
"EVERYBODY OFF!" Instructor Dobbs barked in a parade-ground bellow that had Eiada's body out of her seat, knives in hand, and through the door before her mind caught up to it.  
  
The door was open at the bow of the ship, and thank Hyne, because Eiada was running on autopilot now, and probably wouldn't have stopped if it had been closed. One long step took her from the metal deck to the gritty Dollet sand, and she slid forward and nearly fell. Somehow she was first, and the others thudded down behind her. She heard them splash up sand, a distant part of her brain checking o see if they landed all right, and then she was running again.  
  
The sky was a dark, feral orange with gunpowder clouds like roadkill smeared across. She had barely noticed this when a grenade went off too near to her, throwing her to her knees. As the rest of the squad caught up, she pulled herself to her feet and was off again, wanting nothing more than to get away from the all-too-obvious target of the scout ship and the Balamb G insignia, wanting to find the relative safety of the medical perimeter.  
  
"Two o'clock!" Instructor Dobbs bellowed, turning heads across the beach. Squad D veered off like a precise military unit, not three teenagers previously combating boredom and seasickness. The tan-gold sand stretched ahead and Eiada saw the figures of guards and patrols, stretchers and delicately bent forms tending the fallen.  
  
"One SeeD and candidates reporting from Balamb Garden!" The bellowing continued, earning them relaxed weapons and nods of acceptance. Sliding to a halt within the ring of stretchers and supply crates, Instructor Dobbs spun to shout: "Connolly and Zyras, to the perimeter!"  
  
Eiada and Roen reversed direction as Arin plowed past them. There were only eight or ten people ringing the medical area, which was backed up against a cliff. Only a half-circle of guards was needed, but Eiada could see they needed reinforcements. She and Roen slid into place in a sparse area of the circle, weapons in hand.  
  
A lull. Eiada watched the tiny figures grappling and falling and screaming no more than a quarter-mile away, trying not to think too hard. She could hear someone groaning prayers from a stretcher behind her, and she tried to make the connections between contact, conflict, battle, injury, death, a straight line in her mind.  
  
Roen glanced at her. "Okay?"  
  
She stared at him, then remembered to nod. She was okay. This was what she was trained to do. She was okay.  
  
A distant, high-pitched whine drew her attention to the gentle green swells of ocean. The dark blue bow of a Galbadian scout boat sliced foam and whitecaps out of the waves. It was, Eiada realized in the rush of white adrenaline, coming right for them. "Roen!" she shouted- too loud for someone standing right next to her.  
  
"I see." He turned to the rest of the circle. "MEDICAL PERIMETER!"  
  
Heads turned, weapons readied themselves. Eiada pulled her knives, whimsically named Right and Left, from her left shoulder and hip- Left short, for slashing, Right long, for defense and swordplay. Beside her, Roen's sword gleamed silver and green from the ocean, and she saw him settle into a deep-rooted stance.  
  
The Galbadian boat docked much the same way as their scout boat had, and soldiers identically clad in blue and silver began to pour out. The ranged weapons from the perimeter guards picked some of them off immediately, and Eiada's all-too-inconvenient sense of chivalry kicked in. Then, as the remainder of the Galbadians picked themselves up and began to charge, she remembered that they were here to attack their wounded, their medics, which wasn't exactly following the code of honorable combat, and, more importantly, her life was in danger, so she'd better swallow her pride and fight!  
  
She met the first one head-on. or as close as her form of combat would allow to head-on, anyway. She held perfectly still, trying to look like she had frozen with fear, (which was funny, because she certainly wasn't planning to freeze- her body just went into the most applicable combination she knew) and let the Galbadian charge her, sword out and down to run her through. At the last moment, she dodged out of the way, caught his leading wrist, and threw him over her hip. A ram with the butts of both knives kept him down.  
  
A sense of elation filled her. Combat wasn't so bad! She hadn't even killed him! Or gotten hurt hersel-  
  
Something sharp and firey ripped across her arm and she shouted, spinning to face Galbadian soldier number two. A quick clash of blades and she'd slipped in between his guard and his body and stabbed him with Right, the longer knife. Left made a flash of silver across his face and he fell.  
  
"Eiada, to your left!" Roen shouted, and she spun to block a downward slash, the last rays of the sun leaping off her blade and into her eyes and the battle continued. 


	3. The SeeD Exam, Continued

The sun was in her eyes.  
  
Eiada blinked, winced as her head began to pound. She was standing on the beach, staring directly into the sun barely touching the waves across the sea. The sounds of fighting had ceased.  
  
(.What time is it?)  
  
Eiada couldn't remember what had happened. She'd been fighting, she knew that- she must have just. lost herself.  
  
She shook her head, trying to find her equilibrium. She knew what had gone on, knew where she was and why she was there. She just couldn't seem to reconcile her brain and her body.  
  
"Eiada!"  
  
She turned away from the sun to see Roen slogging through the sand toward her. Little figures bustled around behind him- the medical area, she remembered. She was distracted by the blurring arms and legs, gestures and motions and lives, all around, all waiting-  
  
(Whoa.) With an effort, she focused back in on Roen. The squad leader looked exhausted, sore and bone-weary. The appropriate medical term, if Eiada remembered correctly was 'like shit'. She began to wave, realized her knives were still in her hands. Confused, she began to sheathe them when she realized they were coated thickly with red blood and greenish ichor. Human and monster.  
  
"Hey," she said when he got close enough. "are you alright?"  
  
"Yeah. Just-" he turned to glance at the medical area. "Tired. You?"  
  
"I'm okay." After fighting for her life, mixing her blood with sand and staining her uniform with the blood of others, it seemed childish to say 'My head hurts,' so she didn't. "We won, right?"  
  
Roen gave her an odd look. "Yeah, the Galbadian ships pulled out about ten minutes ago. Remember? This district of the city's been liberated, but they still have the other half, over behind that hill-" he pointed to a high, rocky hill with a spire of dark metal sticking out of the top. "Our latest intel says they may have been after that radio tower the whole time."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Come on. Let's go check in." Roen took a few steps forward, then turned when she showed no sign of following, touched her elbow. "Hey-"  
  
"Right." Eiada shook herself, trying to focus. "Okay. Yes. I'm coming."  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The medical area had evolved from noisy, frantic chaos to exhausted, determined chaos. The perimeter guard had been stripped down to a few key soldiers standing at weary alert, most soaked in body fluids and nursing wounds of their own. The remainder were occupied packing medical supplies, stacking crates on dollys to roll into the awaiting scout ships, and getting their injuries treated. Every few minutes a wounded soldier would pull away from the perimeter to be replaced with a newly-mended one. SeeD was closing up shop.  
  
"Excuse me." Roen stopped a distracted-looking Dollet doctor. "Have you seen Merina Dobbs? She's a SeeD."  
  
"Oh, yes-" the man pointed. "She's over there, with the critical cases."  
  
Roen thanked him and double-timed it over to the intensive care unit, Eiada pulling up her weary legs and forcing them to follow. The unit was separated from the confusion and chaos of the evacuation proceedings by a low wall of crates that was slowly being demolished. The two SeeD candidates paused just outside the wall.  
  
"Instructor Dobbs-" Roen called timidly.  
  
The older woman stood up from her seat next to a stretcher, walked over. Her face was lined and her eyes tired. She cleared her throat as the students came to attention.  
  
"Well done, trainees." Instructor Dobbs rubbed a hand across her brow. "Are either of you injured?"  
  
"Not seriously, ma'am." Roen replied.  
  
Biting off the 'no shit' that came to her lips, Eiada nodded.  
  
The Instructor raised an eyebrow. "I think I could have ascertained that myself, Trainee. Are either of you injured in any way?"  
  
"Uh-" Roen blushed. "Yes ma'am." Extending his left arm, he showed her a slash that ran from shoulder to elbow.  
  
"Ah." Pursing her lips, Instructor Dobbs nodded. "Trainee Connolly?"  
  
"Yes ma'am." Eiada gestured to the nick some now-departed Galbadian had opened in her bicep, along with a jagged gash across her right hip.  
  
"I see. Good." Stepping back, she gestured them into the critical area. "Find Trainee Tayler and tell him you will be moving out."  
  
There was a weary chorus of "Yes ma'am." Saluting, Roen and Eiada made their way past their SeeD mentor and into the medical area.  
  
"Oh, and trainees-"  
  
They both skidded to a stop, came to attention.  
  
"Feel free to use potions on your wounds." The words were casual enough, but the tone made them a command.  
  
"Yes ma'am!"  
  
"Hyne, she looked beat." Eiada muttered to Roen as they made their way through the scurrying soldiers and medics to a relatively quiet spot behind some crates.  
  
"Everyone does. I think we're all ready to go home." With a stifled groan, he sat on a crate and pulled a potion out of another. "Here."  
  
Catching it, Eiada broke it open and sprinkled it over her wounds. The powder acted as a high-speed coagulant and general antibacterial and nutrient boost to the wound and the surrounding flesh. The cuts were still there- just clean, healthy, and looking like they had spent a week healing instead of a minute.  
  
Roen cracked the casing on a potion like cracking an egg on the kitchen counter. "D'you think we can get coffee anywhere around here?"  
  
"I wish." Eiada stifled a yawn. "Now that you mention it, I could use some naptime."  
  
"We can sleep on the boat home. Let's find Arin."  
  
"Whatever you say, fearless leader-guy." She dredged up a smile, stood, and they walked back into the melee.  
  
Arin stood chatting casually with some other SeeD candidates, mechanically filling out and distributing- (Hyne and the saints preserve us!) Eiada's heart leapt with the same surge of joy she got when seeing a loved one for the first time in years- paper cups of coffee to the soldiers from a silver dispenser.  
  
"Roen-" she whispered, clutching his elbow. "Do you see that?"  
  
"Yeah," he breathed reverently. "Let's get some."  
  
"Hey, you guys!" Arin waved cheerfully, looking none the worse for wear from the battle and the almost-nonstop healing the rest of the camp seemed to have gone through. "There you are! Are you okay?"  
  
"That kind of enthusiasm should be dragged out in the street and shot," Eiada muttered, walking over with Roen to meet their Squad member.  
  
"We're fine." Roen answered. "Or we will be, as soon as we have some of that coffee."  
  
"Okay." Arin handed them two steaming cups. Eiada laced hers with four sugar packets and guzzled it down, ignoring Roen's disgusted look.  
  
"Yay." she sighed, putting the cup in the trash. "I'm ready to face Instructor Dobbs now."  
  
"Same." Roen agreed. "Arin, she wants to see us if you're free."  
  
Arin spread his hands in a sarcastic gesture of aquiescence.  
  
The three of them marched back to the Instructor, who was sipping a cup of coffee herself.  
  
"Squad D reporting in, ma'am." Roen said in greeting.  
  
"Good, good." The Instructor leaned wearily against a crate. "At ease, trainees."  
  
Eiada slid out of the single most relaxed 'attention' she'd ever stood in and tried to look attentive anyway.  
  
"Good news is, we've cleared the Galbadian forces out of this area and all the way to the hill where the radio tower stands. Having fulfilled its objective, Garden offensive forces will be pulling out shortly. Bad news is, defensive forces will remain to clean up and search out any wounded townsfolk to heal. We're going to be here for awhile, trainees.  
  
"Your secondary assignment, Squad D, is to patrol inside Dollet to the northeast and assist any walking wounded you find there. They can be SeeD, civilians, whatever. Just patrol until you receive the withdraw order. Failing that, report back to the beach at midnight. Understood?"  
  
"Yes ma'am!"  
  
"Good." Instructor Dobbs managed a wan smile. "Get used to pulling double shifts, people. Every healed head is another bonus for Garden. Pick up medical supply kits and AT packs on your way out. Dismissed!" 


	4. Bonus Work

"'We're going to be here awhile, trainees,'" Arin repeated in a vicious caricature of Instructor Dobbs' voice. "'Failing that, report back to the beach at midnight, trainees.' And oh, while you're in there, if you could pick me up a pound of sugar and loaf of bread, trainees, that would be oh- so helpful."  
  
"Dude, give it a rest," Eiada suggested. "I don't think she assigned us extra work 'cause she was feeling like being evil."  
  
"Did you hear the way she said 'defensive forces will remain to clean up'?" Roen asked, nearly tripping over a sand-colored rock. "It sounded like she wanted to add 'the mess the offensive squads made'."  
  
"Okay, yeah, but you'd think they'd leave the solo work to the real live SeeDs, you know?" Arin groaned. "Seriously, I'm beat."  
  
"No one covered for Roen and I when that Galbadian scout ship landed." Eiada pointed out. "What, did they have a full SeeD holding your hand every time you healed someone?"  
  
"No," Arin pouted. "but I did a lot of tandem work. You know, group operations? What do you mean, holding my ha-"  
  
"AT packs." Roen pointed to yet another pile of identical crates. "One each."  
  
As Eiada bent to shoulder a waterproof brown All Terrain pack, Roen caught her gaze across the crate. Very deliberately, he shook his head.  
  
(What?) She raised an eyebrow back.  
  
Roen glanced at Arin.  
  
The other eyebrow shot up. (He doesn't want me to mention full SeeDs holding his hand.)  
  
Unofficial Garden protocol flew into her head. It was very unusual to see someone as young as Arin on the SeeD exam. Fifteen, his age, was the minimum. It was also typical to see SeeD groups with an older veteran as the leader. Someone under eighteen was rarely assigned to command, and people younger than seventeen were almost never assigned to political hotspots like Deling City or occupied territories. On a mission as deeply political as this one, someone as inexperienced and, well, young as Arin would be watched very closely.  
  
In effect, Eiada's speculation had been dead on. But for the sake of pride, and the maintenance of Arin's behavior, no one would tell him.  
  
(Whoops.) She nodded back at Roen, mouthed 'sorry'.  
  
"Come on, folks!" Arin exclaimed impatiently, finally wriggling into his straps. "Let's go!"  
  
"Sorry, sorry, coming." Eiada muttered, falling into step with the others. Together, the three of them walked towards the city.  
  
Given the added weight of the pack in the fading light and the treacherous footing, Eiada tripped over herself twice before she learned to walk looking at her toes. Maybe it was because she was so tired, but the simple rhythm of step, check, step was pretty calming. The ocean whispered to itself, glancing shots of green out of the corner of her eye, and she smiled. She'd always been an ocean person. Her uncle Wage lived in a tiny coastal village and he had a boat. she liked boats, too.  
  
After about ten minutes of walking, they reached the imposing charcoal stone and steel of the seawall. Still reminiscing about her uncle's fishing business, she nearly tripped over the mincing cobbled stairs that lead up to the Dollet town proper.  
  
They walked up the steps silently, listening to the sounds of distant gunfire and battle. It sounded like the Galbadians were reluctant to give up the radio tower. For the umpteenth time, Eiada wondered why they had invaded Dollet in the first place.  
  
Squad D crossed under a much larger wall through an arched opening that lead into the city- (Tsunami control,) Eiada thought automatically- and onto the main street. Houses and storefronts lined the sidewalk, all silent and dark save for a few determined lights in the upper stories. The air smelled like gunpowder, sea salt, and sweat.  
  
"I don't see any bodies here." Arin murmured to his squad mates. "Don't feel any injuries either."  
  
Eiada glanced back at him. "What do you mean, feel any injuries?"  
  
Arin stared innocently back. "It's a healer thing. If you work long enough with curative magic, you kinda get a sense of who needs it, and where they are. Like empathy or something, I dunno. It's like pain radar."  
  
(Spooky,) Eiada thought automatically. (-but maybe kind of helpful, too.)  
  
"What, don't you use spells like Cure and Esuna?" Arin asked from behind them.  
  
"Not that much." Eiada smiled back. "I prefer my GF, or my knives."  
  
"GF, singular?"  
  
"Yeah, I've had him for a long time. Leviathan. I junctioned him before I came to Garden."  
  
"With no classes or anything?" Arin sounded amazed. "Just stuck it raw in your head?"  
  
"Uh- yeah." Eiada didn't see what the big deal was. "It wasn't so bad, just. funny. You know, like the first time you junctioned a tame GF- all crazy and time-distorty and stuff-"  
  
"Quiet." From ahead of them, Roen held up a hand, held very still.  
  
Eiada stopped walking, if only to avoid running into his back. "Sorry. Did I say some-"  
  
"No, Eiada, listen." There was an intensity in Roen's voice that stopped her cold and had her knives out before she thought about it. His longsword shimmered silver and black in the streetlights. "Do you hear that?" he whispered.  
  
Eiada listened. A gentle breeze slid down between the buildings, made the skin between her shoulderblades prickle.  
  
"What?" she whispered back.  
  
"I don't hear anything," Arin agreed.  
  
"That's it. Listen- the fighting's stopped."  
  
He was right. And it was damned spooky. All of a sudden, Eiada wondered if they were stupid for just standing blithely in the middle of the street, waiting for whoever wanted to attack them to come attack them. Somewhere far off, something metallic pounded rhythmically against stone. "I wonder who won."  
  
Roen stared up the street for a minute, then turned to face the others as the pounding got louder. "I don't know, maybe I'm just being alarmist-"  
  
"GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY!"  
  
Eiada jumped about six feet in the air and skittered off to the side of the road as a blond young man ran by at top speed, followed closely by a tiny brown-haired girl. She waved a flustered apology at Eiada, Roen, and Arin. Just as Eiada was adjusting to the sudden adrenaline rush, she was nearly mowed over by a tall, brown-haired young man carrying a gunblade and running like his life depended on it.  
  
Which it probably did. Hot on the heels of the brown-haired guy was a huge four-legged spiderlike machine. It was maybe four times as long as Eiada, and two feet taller, and it looked perfectly capable of squashing whatever disagreed with it. There was a moment of terrified clarity when she saw every pointed foot come down, splintering cobblestones, throwing up such an intense noise she had to close her eyes and bit her lip to keep from screaming. As an all-too-close footfall threw her down, she heard a barked "Holy shit!" from Arin, Roen's wordless exclamation. She then lost all track of sound or voice as the spiderlike thing followed the three runners through the seawall. Literally.  
  
Eiada crouched against some garbage cans, hands clamped over her ears, coughing as hard as she could in hopes of expelling all the dust from the wall out of her lungs. When her vision cleared, she searched for her squadmates, saw them crouched against a wall across the street. They were coughing as well.  
  
Eiada rose shakily from her crouch, still coughing, and teetered across the street. Neither of the boys looked hurt, although both of them were dusted a very unflattering shade of chalky gray-white from head to foot.  
  
"You- okay?" Roen wheezed, shaking dust out of his hair.  
  
Still coughing too hard to speak, Eiada nodded vigorously, offered him a hand up.  
  
Arin pulled himself up on a rain gutter. "What- the hell- was that?"  
  
"I- don't know." She managed. "Maybe a new- Galbadian- weapon?"  
  
With a final cough that sounded like it seriously jeopardized the position of his lungs, Roen nodded. "Not new. Every Galbadian Army platoon has an AMV- Armored Military Vehicle. That was the X-ATM092 model."  
  
"That was crazy," Arin said clearly. "That thing sucked."  
  
Roen nodded tiredly. "Everyone sure they're alright?"  
  
Eiada and Arin nodded back.  
  
"Okay. Keep going?" Roen gestured vaguely up the street.  
  
"Yeah." Arin sighed, and as they started to walk, added: "Damn, if I were a full SeeD I'd want a bonus for that kind of shit."  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Here," the selfsame healer said half an hour later. "Stop here."  
  
Squad D drifted to a stop in the middle of a mostly demolished square. The surrounding buildings had been torn open and left raw- likely by the legs and sides of the X-ATM092. Arin gravitated towards a pile of rubble that had fallen from a corner apartment building. Distantly, Eiada could hear someone groaning.  
  
"Yeah-" Arin whispered, more to himself than anyone else. "There you are."  
  
"Anything we can do to help?" Roen asked pointedly.  
  
"No- No, s'okay, just." Arin waved a hand off in the direction of the rest of the world. "go over there."  
  
Eiada and Roen walked obediently 'over there' and sat on the crumbling rim of a fountain. Eiada watched as Arin begin to remove rocks from the pile of rubble carefully, one at a time, as though he was able to tell exactly which ones were injuring and which ones were holding the person in place. When he finally unearthed a man of about thirty, he sat back and began to talk to him. When he'd gotten the man fully awake and lucid, and able to answer all Arin's questions, Arin began to set bones and Cure.  
  
Eiada watched, mesmerized, as all the boyhood melted out of Arin's face and he became. not a man, but no longer a child. He was a healer, doing what he did best. An hour passed.  
  
Finally, Arin sat back on his heels. "Better?" he asked quietly. The man said something Eiada couldn't hear. Arin asked another question and, upon hearing the response, stood up. "Hey." He called to Eiada and Roen. "His wife lives a block down the street. I'm going to go get her."  
  
"I'll come with." Eiada replied automatically. That was her SeeD exam objective- guard the healer.  
  
"Okay. Roen, will you stay and watch him?" Arin jerked his chin at the man.  
  
Roen nodded, and Arin and Eiada set off. Eiada waited silently as Arin knocked on a door, explained the situation to a teary would-be widow, helped her make a stretcher out of a old coat, a hat rack, and a length of plywood, and carried it back to her husband. She and Arin accepted tear- filled thanks (Arin more genuinely then Eiada), and waved the happy couple on their way.  
  
"Well," Arin said cheerfully, pulling off his gore-stained rubber gloves. "that was fun."  
  
(Not really,) Eiada thought, but knew better than to say. All that gratitude made her uncomfortable. She hadn't even done anything.  
  
Roen stood up from the chipped fountain basin where he had waited silently for an hour and a half. "Feeling anything else?" he asked.  
  
Arin shrugged. "No, not really, but I can only feel things within a few hundred feet-"  
  
"Squad D!" someone shouted down the street. "YO! Squad D!"  
  
Feet clattered on cobblestone and a broad-shouldered, slim-waisted figure skidded into the square. It was a young man, about Eiada's age, with an angular face and leaf green eyes. His hair poked up naturally about two inches off his scalp in brick-red tendrils. His face looked malleable, accustomed to both frequent laughter and frequent frowns. A short sword and round shield were belted to his back over his cadet uniform.  
  
He slid to a stop in front of the three teenagers. Sweat gleamed on his brow, pearly and translucent in the dying light. "Squad D?"  
  
Roen stepped forward. "Yes. I'm Squad Leader."  
  
The trainee came to attention, but neglected the customary salute. "Iyan Raines from Squad C. They sent me to tell you that we've been told to withdraw."  
  
Eiada took a deep breath, released it. (Thank Hyne.) She felt her muscles begin to loosen just thinking of going home. Her fellow trainees must have felt the same way she did. Arin took her silent enthusiasm a step farther- he jumped in the air with a thrilled "WOO-HOO!" Even Roen looked relieved.  
  
Iyan smiled back at them. "Yeah, I kinda thought it would be good news." Turning around, he gestured mockingly down the street towards the bay. "Shall we?"  
  
"Let's go," Eiada sighed, shouldering her AT pack and starting forward. Roen fell into step beside her, while Iyan led the way until Arin swept past him in an enthusiastic sprint.  
  
It was with light feet Squad D and the messenger made it to the seawall- light enough that Eiada barely thought about the gaping arch they passed under, barely wondered about crumbling masonry and concrete.  
  
As they crested the stairs, Eiada saw the tiny figures in SeeD and trainees uniforms at the edge of the beach, loading the last crates and stretchers into the fleet of squad boats beached ashore.  
  
"Whoa!" Iyan exclaimed from the very edge of the stairway. When Eiada and Roen caught up, she saw the crumpled corpse of the X-ATM092 sprawled at the base of the wall. It looked like someone very angry had taken a machine gun to it. Or a stiletto, but Eiada thought it was probably the former, stilettos not generally being the weapon of choice when it came to battling killer attack spiders.  
  
"Dude, somebody wailed on that thing!"  
  
"Yeah," Eiada breathed. It was unnerving to see something that had moved with such power and purpose lying discarded on the beach. She thought, briefly, of a broken toy, then discarded the metaphor as too cliché.  
  
Beside her, Roen raised an arm in a neat wave to the figures on the beach. One of them paused, waved back. Given build and efficiency of movement, it was Instructor Dobbs. "SQUAD D! REPORT IN!" drifted over the sand.  
  
Roen winced. "That woman can yell." Eiada nodded in commiseration.  
  
Hair made solid gold in the sun, Arin danced elaborately down the steps, singing an extremely dirty drinking song. Obscene as it was, it was catchy, and Eiada found herself humming along. She felt buoyant, light, literally high on something- (probably endorphins,) the more logical part of her brain said, although the rest of her was willing to accept relief. The exam was nearly over, and it hadn't been that bad.  
  
Still singing at the top of his boyishly-high voice, Arin leaped down the last few stairs, landed in a swirl of sand, and danced in a lopsided circle over to the mostly-intact carcass of the attack spider. With a resounding final chorus, he hefted a booted foot and kicked it sharply in the 'face', which was about level with his thighs.  
  
Eiada laughed aloud, taking the stairs at a fairly upbeat gait herself. "Arin, don't tease the spider," she chided.  
  
It was the gait that lead her up next to the spider, the laughter that let her ignore the sound of abused machinery activating in a high ascending whine, and the shock that froze her to the ground as the red running lights on the X-ATM092's faceplate flickered back on. She saw Arin actually spring backwards, a move that would have been funny if it hadn't been so sincere, saw Roen and Iyan mimic him out of the corner of her eye, and heard, more than anything, the groan of steel and gears as the spider heaved itself out of the sand and settled itself on it's single-clawed feet. Nearly in slow motion, it rocked gently to disgorge any extra sand, and angled its body to face Arin- who had also frozen to the sand.  
  
"RUN!" Eiada heard herself screaming as her body scrambled backwards over the sand. Arin's face snapped over to hers and he did, pulling his long legs over to her as the X-ATM092 took a step forward. She didn't know if it was impact or her own watery knees, but she felt the ground shake. Then she didn't stop to think anymore, she just ran; ran across the sand, ran up the stairs, ran as fast as she could. She heard Arin whimpering behind her, and, worse, the crunch of the stairs under spidery feet.  
  
"Shit shit shit," Iyan was breathing with the cadence of a prayer as she sprinted past him. She wasted a moment grabbing the strap of his AT pack and dragging him after her as she ran. Roen swore agreeably and followed. 


	5. Sudden Turns Downhill

Dollet blurred by. About ten minutes ago Eiada had passed through the square where she and Roen had rested while Arin healed the civilian. The X- ATM092 had followed easily, crushing the fountain they had sat on. Looking back, Eiada didn't much like the symbolism of that.  
  
So far, the three others had been able to keep pace with her. Roen and Iyan both had longer legs, and Arin was just nimble, so together they had made pretty good pace against the metal beast. She didn't look back often, but she thought it was catching up- a fact both discouraging and inspirational. Eiada wasn't a fast runner, a fact she had no qualms about admitting, although at the moment she would have traded both her legs and her uncle's boat for a pair of wings.  
  
Problem was, as fast as they all were (or weren't), the X-ATM092 had longer legs, was faster, and didn't have to worry about running into things- it ran over them. The only thing that seemed to slow it down was the narrow streets, which it had to take diagonally, two legs on the ground and two legs braced on a wall.  
  
(Oh shit.) The ground had begun to slope upwards. Eiada didn't do uphill. It just didn't work very well.  
  
Not that she didn't have strong motivation to push her limits.  
  
Up ahead, the path widened and the 'incline' mutated into a genuine hill. Had she wanted to waste the breath, she would have sworn. Sucking in a deep breath, she pushed on.  
  
Soon she was running uphill on a rapidly increasing slope, past crumpled bodies and monster remains. (The majority of the fighting must have been concentrated here,) she realized. Insight followed, as insight tends to do, at the worst possible time. (Oh shit, we're headed for the radio tower!)  
  
She dared another deep breath as she slowed to wrench herself between two boulders that had fallen on the cobblestone path. "ROEN! GUYS!"  
  
She heard someone shout behind her, couldn't make out the words over her rapidly increasing heartbeat. The AT pack chafed against her back, and she took a minute of escape by glancing up the path. Up ahead, the cobblestone road widened and begin to taper off. They were nearing the top of the sea cliffs. Eiada's heart sank. The one thing she wanted to deal with less than the X-ATM092 was the X-ATM092 and a bunch of battle-hardened Galbadian veterans. Like the ones posted around the radio tower. Not that she wanted to stop running, which seemed to be the only other option.  
  
(Shit.)  
  
"HEY!" She shouted again.  
  
"Eiada!" Arin's curly head appeared between the boulders. Even with the AT pack, he wriggled through with the grace of someone whose bones are actually liquid, followed by the blockier forms of Roen and Iyan.  
  
"Stop for a minute!" Eiada pleaded. "Hey, if we keep going, we'll get to the radio tower!"  
  
With an ear-shattering crash, the X-ATM092 impacted with the two boulders. Roen glanced frantically between the boulders and Eiada, who had drawn her knives automatically. "You sure?"  
  
"YES!" Eiada shouted, closer to panicking than she had been all day. "And if you don't want to get eviscerated by Galbadian soldiers, maybe you should think of somewhere else to go!"  
  
Roen's mouth gaped; he looked like he wanted nothing more than to scream profanity at her until she changed her story. She glared back at him. (Come on, Roen. You're the Squad Leader. You're supposed to think of something!) At the same time she was frantically debating the merits of staying and fighting the attack spider with the allure of running like hell and trying to avoid the radio tower through some alternate route. Fighting seemed more plausible, not that that was saying much.  
  
Roen looked like he didn't have the faintest idea of what to do.  
  
Two clawed feet appeared atop the boulders, followed by the body of the X- ATM092. Somewhat ungracefully, it landed on the other side of the boulders. Iyan and Arin swore in perfect unison. Eiada agreed.  
  
Logically, she knew the attack spider was a machine. It didn't have feelings or desires; it just carried out its programming. The rest of her knew without a doubt that the machine had followed them up the cliff to kill them, and was using this brief pause to savor imminent victory. The last shred of the sun above the ocean flung bright sparks off the metal casing of its foreplate, illuminating the red optical sensors perfectly. Damned if it didn't look satisfied.  
  
Apparently the moment was over. The X-ATM092 charged. Eiada watched with frantic, focused terror as each metal foot came down, each ponderous swing of the body over the legs brought it a little closer. Eiada swallowed, hard. She'd told herself she wasn't going to die today. Apparently, she'd been wrong.  
  
Looking back, later, she didn't really remember the order of things- had she tried to bolt first, shoving through the jumbled mass of Arin and Iyan, had Arin screaming set her off, or had Roen stepped forward, sword braced, hilt and blade against his hands, a beam of pure silver in the otherwise flatlined light?  
  
All she really remembered clearly was his voice, inadequately soft for the power it called forth: "Diamond Dust." Superimposed over Iyan's: "NO!"  
  
Then there was winter, bursting clean and white and frozen, from the Squad Leader. Eiada heard the cracking of glaciers against each other in spring, saw the white skirts and lace of snowdrifts blowing against each other, saw the pillar of ice emerge like a blessing from the unforgiving ground.  
  
The pillar burst, showering Eiada and the others with ice crystals, and the goddess, Shiva, was given to the light. Eiada closed her eyes as her teeth began to chatter. Even in Winhill during the coldest winter in history, she had never felt such bone-sawing, mind-searing cold.  
  
When she opened them again, the GF was gone. The entire path, and the cliff continuing up next to them, was sheathed in deep blue ice. Snow drifted in the shadier areas. Eiada bit her lip at the beauty of it.  
  
There was a clatter of metal on glass, and the X-ATM092 made its presence known. It had been charging as Shiva appeared, and was charging still. This time, it had significantly less control over it's movement. She heard herself shout as realization hit with the force of-  
  
Well, an X-ATM092 plowing forward at full attack speed after having slipped on the iced-over path.  
  
The writhing mass of legs and metal skidded across the ice full tilt. Eiada scrambled gracelessly, trying to get out of the way, and fell flat on her face before she realized the path under her feet was icy as well. From the corner of her eye, she could see the others having the same problems. She watched her hands scrabble frantically at the cobblestones in front of her as though in a dream. (It's not supposed to happen this way,) she thought stupidly. (It's really not.)  
  
Then the spider hit her, and the world caught fire and folded into ash.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
(In her dream, she was on her Uncle Wage's boat. The sun stroked her face, heating her scalp under its boyish cap of black hair, pulling the scent of fish and decay from the sea below. Far, far away, at the other end of the boat, her uncle looked up from his nets and waved. He shouted something, but the roaring in her ears kept her from hearing. She stood up to go ask him what he'd said, but a wave came up and sucked her away, into the sea.)  
  
Eiada woke when the beach came up and hit her in the face. She snorted sand, gagged, and was thrown end over end by the uncaring ocean. The wave brought her back into deep water with it, then sent her body dancing along the crest, rolling and spinning onto the shore.  
  
She came to long enough to throw up everything she'd ever eaten and cough up half the ocean.  
  
A long period of pain and sleep later, someone was shaking her shoulder. "Eiada. Eiada."  
  
She winced, tried to get a good breath, except the beach was in her way. She inhaled sand for the second time, decided it would be a good idea to throw up some more. She spent a contemplative moment gagging until a warm hand pulled her chin up, placed a water bottle in her hand. She sipped gingerly, the taste of her own puke almost making her throw up again, and spat out the water.  
  
"Thanks." she croaked, shoving herself up from the clammy sand. She managed to roll over onto her back, opened her eyes and concentrated on focusing them.  
  
"Are you alright?" A familiar voice asked. A dark, blurry figure swam overhead, silhouetted by the night sky.  
  
Eiada squinted up at him, still caught up in her dream. "Uncle Wage?"  
  
The someone coughed uncomfortably. "No, uh- Eiada, it's me. Roen."  
  
"Oh." Eiada took a peaceful moment to wonder how Roen had gotten so damn tall. (Oh yeah, I'm lying down. Hyne, my head hurts.)  
  
Roen stared down at her pointedly. "You okay?"  
  
"Uh-" Four limbs and a head, all of which were functioning reasonably well. "Yeah."  
  
"Want to stand up?"  
  
"Oh. Sure." She took his offered hand, pulled herself to her feet. The world rocked a little around the edges, slowly settled into place. Eiada blinked, tried to think about peaceful things like fields of wildflowers or the gentle motion of a boat at night-  
  
"You seem to be doing that a lot lately," Roen observed unnecessarily as she bent to throw up a little more.  
  
"This is ridiculous," she replied. "Got any potions?"  
  
"No, but Arin does. We lost an AT pack in the ocean, but he found yours washed up on the beach."  
  
"Thank Hyne," she sighed gratefully. A second thought occurred to her Quickly, she checked for both knives and her Balamb G dog tags. Everything was there. Roen also wore his sword- more out of habit, it seemed, than anything else. More or less, they were in one peice. "So Arin's okay, then?"  
  
"Yeah. Come on." Taking her elbow, Roen began to walk down the beach.  
  
"What about- whatshisname, Iyan?"  
  
Roen frowned. "Arin's with him. Over there."  
  
Eiada followed his gaze to the abrupt intersection of cliff, ocean, and sand. The remnants of the X-ATM092 lay crumpled across a few fallen boulders on its back, all four feet in the air like, well, a dead spider. Eiada shivered, the memory of what had happened the last time she'd assumed it was dead fresh in her mind.  
  
Roen followed her gaze. "I think it's dead. It didn't do anything when we threw rocks at it."  
  
Eiada debated the merits of this time-honored and highly scientific method of examination, decided to let it pass. "Okay."  
  
Roen pointed to the right of the rocks, a more grim expression conquering his face. "Arin's over there."  
  
Eiada squinted, barely made out the charcoal-blue of a SeeD trainee uniform against the dark, wet rocks. Arin crouched over a still dark blue shape, corkscrews of hair dangling worriedly into his face. Sitting up to shove them back into place, he saw Eiada and Roen, waved frantically.  
  
"Come 'ere!" He shouted over the roaring of the waves against stone. "I need a hand!"  
  
The other two scrambled across the sand. Reaching the rocks, Eiada slid her hands across for purchase on the wet stone. Cursing, she pulled herself up, fell back on her ass twice, and decided to go around.  
  
Iyan lay, limbs skewed in every direction, at Arin's feet. A freezing breeze stirred his hair, the only sign of motion besides the slow rise and fall of his chest. Superstitiously, Eiada glanced up. Dark black clouds were rolling in from the ocean and over their heads. (Shit.) She'd been raised by a sailor- she knew what that meant. With a stern act of will, she dragged her eyes back down to Iyan. "What's wrong with him?"  
  
Arin glanced up at her, frustration written in the lines of his face. "His leg's broken. Badly. Hyne knows what else because I won't until I can really examine him. Preferably somewhere warm and dry. If we can't get under shelter, he's gonna get hypothermia six ways to Sunday and-" he seemed to realize Eiada was soaked through as well. "-Whoa, odds are you will too."  
  
"Great," Eiada sighed, hugging herself automatically. "So, shelter?"  
  
"The ships," Arin and Roen chorused.  
  
Eiada gestured mutely at Iyan and his handicap.  
  
Roen took a step back. "Here, I have an idea. Arin, align the bones and get them set as well as you can- cast Cure or make a splint, I don't care, whatever you can do. Okay?"  
  
Looking faintly surprised, Arin cast a half-mocking salute and knelt over Iyan's leg. Eiada looked away. She wasn't usually squeamish about blood or broken bones or violence (she was training to be a mercenary, for Hyne's sake), but something about moving bones around under the skin just creeped her right out.  
  
After about fifteen minutes, Arin placed one hand on Iyan's ankle, one on his knee, leaned forward and whispered "Cure." In the soft glow of light that followed, Eiada felt her own wounds responding to the perimeter of the spell. She sighed. So did Iyan, though he didn't wake up.  
  
"Great," Roen said, stepping forward. "Do you want to splint it?  
  
"Yeah, just gimme a sec-" Arin scrabbled through an AT pack, pulled out two collapsible rods and a length of rope. In less than a minute, Iyan's calf was splinted neatly.  
  
"Okay, now." Roen reached over, pressed his palm over Iyan's forehead and said, very clearly, "Float."  
  
"Nice!" Arin cheered as Iyan's unconscious body bobbed up into the air. "Let's go!" Grabbing the hem of the other trainee's jacket, he tugged Iyan down the gentle slope of the boulder's rear face. Each picking up an AT pack, Roen and Eiada followed.  
  
"Good call," Eiada said in an aside to Roen as Arin bounced ahead, Iyan bobbing behind him.  
  
He smiled. "Thanks."  
  
"Want to make it a theme and find us a way up the cliffs that won't involve climbing?" Eiada smiled her most winning smile.  
  
Roen gave her an odd look, then pointed to their left. "Well, there's a path going up right over there."  
  
(Wow. Maybe I'm concussed.) The smile had no desire to leave her face, it seemed, although it grew a bit more forced. "Kidding!"  
  
Scrunching through the sand, Eiada caught up to Arin as he wrestled Iyan's limp body around a bend in the rocks leading up the path. Once he's freed Iyan, Eiada realized she could barely discern the young healer from the rocks around him. "Hang on." She wriggled out of the pack straps, dropping it onto the sand. Opening the top, she rummaged through the contents of the pack until her hand encountered smooth plastic- a flashlight. She yanked it free, switched it on, and fastened the pack again.  
  
Arin's face beamed eerily at her in the darkness. "Excellent."  
  
Slowly, the party made its way up the rock-strewn path.  
  
"Hyne," Arin wheezed somewhere around the halfway point. "Someone wanna help? He's friggin' heavy!"  
  
"He's floating," Eiada wheezed back.  
  
"You're dragging him," Roen agreed.  
  
"So the hell what? He still weighs as much as a chocobo!"  
  
"Hey, you shu' th'hell up!" Iyan slurred, looking up at Arin menacingly- Or, pseudo-menacingly. It was hard to take him seriously when his eyes weren't focusing. "Whoa, why's I floatinging?"  
  
"Good morning," Roen called in the best sardonic tone Eiada had heard in a long time.  
  
"Mom?"  
  
"Are you sure it's just his leg that's broken?" Eiada asked Arin pointedly.  
  
"Eh, don't worry." Arin grinned. "Sometimes people do funny shit when you cast spells on them while they're unconscious. Messes with their heads."  
  
"The capital of Galbadia!" Iyan insisted.  
  
"Stop for a sec." Letting go of his patient, Arin dropped his AT pack on the dusty ground and reached into a side compartment. "Here, I'll just give him a remedy and he'll be set to go."  
  
Eiada shrugged, and Roen nodded, albeit hesitantly.  
  
"What?" Eiada asked as Arin administered the remedy. Roen shrugged.  
  
"Nothing. You guys-" He looked at a rock nearby. "You take a hell of a lot more pills than we did at Galbadia G."  
  
Eiada stared back, not understanding. "So what?"  
  
Another shrug.  
  
"We're not a bunch of hopped-up potion fiends, if that's what you mean," she laughed nervously.  
  
"That's not what I'm saying," he mumbled.  
  
Eiada kept staring. This was the first time in the entire exam she'd seen Roen actually uncomfortable. "What?" she asked. "Do you have some kind of, I dunno, medical phobia?"  
  
"Where the hell am I?" Iyan demanded from behind her.  
  
"Scaling the Hyne's-ass of all cliffs," Arin griped. "Actually, I'm doing the scaling and you're floating behind me."  
  
"My leg hurts like a beast!"  
  
"It should. It's broken."  
  
"WHAT!"  
  
From what she could see in the bad light, Roen was blushing. Eiada's jaw dropped. "You do?"  
  
"Do what?" Iyan asked. Roen colored even darker.  
  
"Think we're almost to the top," Eiada filled in neatly. "Let's keep going!"  
  
With some awkward pack-shuffling, the small caravan continued. Concentrating on Arin's back to avoid thinking about her legs, Eiada caught herself thinking about Roen. She probably could have been less blunt about the whole medi-phobia thing. He'd looked really embarrassed back there. (Shit, I hope I didn't piss him off.) It was a recurring theme throughout her life that she said things she either didn't mean, or said things she did mean too loudly. (Probably ought to go make amends.) As Arin and Iyan made their way upwards, while Eiada fell back to Roen's pace. "Hey," she said.  
  
"Hey," he replied gruffly.  
  
Now she was the one blushing. Life wasn't fair. Or it was fair, and just when she wanted it to be unfair in her favor. "Look, uh, sorry about the medical phobia thing- comment- whatever. I didn't mean to piss you off, or embarrass you, or whatever. Sorry. Sorry."  
  
"It's okay."  
  
Was he brushing her off? It sounded like he was brushing her off. "No, really, I mean, a lot of times I really screw up talking to people, like I piss them off or something, so if I did- piss you off, I mean, I didn't mean it that way-"  
  
"Eiada."  
  
She stopped short. "Yeah?"  
  
"Babbling."  
  
"Oh. Sorry." Still blushing. (Damned cheeks.) "I just mean I really am sorry if I-"  
  
"Hyne, Eiada!" By this point he was laughing. She grinned. (Mission accomplished.)  
  
"Hey, do either of you want a turn carrying the floating wounded?" Arin called from ahead.  
  
"Sure, I'll do it," Eiada replied, spirits much higher. Giving Roen a smile, she trotted up the path ahead. "Hi," she said to Iyan when she reached them. "Eiada Connolly."  
  
"Hi," he smiled wanly back, face pale. (He must be in a lot of pain,) Eiada realized as she grabbed hold of his good foot to pull him after her. Apparently he and Arin had worked out a system where Iyan pulled himself around rocks as her lay parallel to the ground- it worked pretty well. She began to walk.  
  
"How're you feeling?" she asked, dodging around a boulder.  
  
"Okay," he replied.  
  
"Leg hurt?"  
  
He snorted. "Can't wait to get back to the SeeD ships."  
  
"Neither can I," Eiada confessed. "This exam was a hell of a lot more than I bargained for."  
  
Iyan chuckled. "Tell me about it. I kind of expected something a little more. hands off."  
  
Eiada laughed. "Me, too! Thank Hyne, I thought I was the only one."  
  
They were laughing as they crested the hill. Pausing to catch her breath, Eiada squinted as the last shred of blood-colored light hit her straight in the eyes and blinded her. She heard the others coming up beside her and gently lowered Iyan's foot to the ground so they could all have a break.  
  
Behind her, the chatter abruptly stopped. (Are we that close?) Eiada lifted a hand to shade her eyes, looking down to the beach below where the ships were docked.  
  
(What the-?)  
  
Panic struck her with its running mate, inspiration, and she looked up to the horizon. Three slender, bullet-shaped ships accelerated against the tide, growing ever-smaller, until, after a moment of perfect, horrified silence, all Eiada could see were the wakes, staining the green ocean red with light. 


	6. Hideout

The silence was perfect.  
  
It lasted about ten seconds.  
  
"Come back," Iyan said clearly to the horizon, tone making a demand out of a plea. No ships appeared.  
  
"Oh, Hyne," Arin whispered, then repeated himself until his voice cracked. "Oh, Hyne Hyne Hyne Hyne Hyne-"  
  
Eiada stayed perfectly silent, having her own little panic attack. Why had the ships left? Why hadn't they stayed to rescue the four of them? Was it possible no one saw the spider chase them back into town? (Get a grip. That spider was huge! Of course they saw us leave. They must have. So why did they leave so quickly? Hyne, oh, Hyne, we're going to die-)  
  
Beside her, Roen took a deep breath. "They're not coming back."  
  
(Shit-,) Eiada realized. (They think we're dead already.)  
  
Arin spun away from the horizon to face the Squad Leader. "But- They'll realize we're missing, won't they? They'll come back."  
  
"You think they don't know yet?" Iyan asked from a sitting position a foot and a half off the ground. Scorn and panic played equally in his voice. "Come on. You know why they left? They think we're dead!"  
  
Somehow, hearing it aloud was ten times worse than thinking it to herself. Eiada made an extremely embarrassing little squeaking noise, covered her mouth with her hands. Three faces turned to her, and she blushed.  
  
"Roen-" Arin whimpered, taking a hesitant step towards the older boy, looking almost like he wanted to tug on his uniform sleeve. "What are we going to do?"  
  
Iyan cleared his throat, clearly shocked that Arin was looking to Roen for guidance.  
  
Eiada saw Roen's eyes travel the group, assessing Iyan's leg, Arin's fear, and, probably, her own nervous silence. "We have to get to shelter," he finally said. "before someone finds us."  
  
Eiada swallowed. Apparently Roen agreed with Iyan's assessment of the situation. (Shit.) She caught herself looking back at the horizon; storm clouds were rolling up to cover the ocean. The Squad Leader had a point.  
  
"But-" she tried to calm down. "We have to get back to the Garden, right? I mean, we'll figure out some way, won't we?"  
  
Roen nodded. "Sorry. We just have to- I think we should take one day at a time."  
  
"So," Iyan said, looking at all of them. "back to Dollet?"  
  
Frightened, reluctant nods circled the group.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"It's gotta be you, Roen," Eiada whispered tersely, staring up at the older trainee. "You're the only one they'll believe."  
  
Standing next to some garbage cans, one eye on the downright grumpy looking sky, Roen didn't look convinced.  
  
"Come on," Arin picked up the argument. "Iyan's broken, I'm too young, and Eiada looks like she went deep-sea fishing with no boat. You're clean, mostly, you're oldest, and you've got the money. Go forth and conquer!"  
  
"Shut up!" Whispered Iyan, who was lying, mostly covered in newspaper, watching the road. Immediately, the other three ducked behind a group of trashcans. Seconds later, a squad of Glabadian soldiers sauntered by. Their arrogance was probably half bravado, half real swagger, Eiada wagered with herself. She'd be damn nervous to be the occupying force in a town that had been in open rebellion for three days.  
  
Of course, being the liberating force wasn't so great either.  
  
The four SeeD candidates had made it inside Dollet with minimal mishap- Eiada had taken a hard fall coming down from the cliffs and Iyan's leg was definitely still fractured, but they hadn't been seen by any Galbadians. (Yet,) Eiada reminded herself, having no desire to tempt fate. In an effort to remain undetected, they were hiding in an alley across from a rundown hotel, having decided to get a room and lay low for the night. Their funds came from the ever-useful AT packs, which held 1000 gil apiece; 100 in a really obvious 'hiding' place, 900 sewn under a false bottom in the pack. Eiada had always doubted the practicality of putting money in packs meant for student use, but apparently Garden was downright anal about logging all purchases and charging students when the need arose. Practicality be damned- she was grateful now.  
  
"Please, Roen," she whispered when the Galbadians had passed. "That was probably the end of our luck."  
  
"Okay, fine, waitaminute." Roen unbuckled his swordbelt from across his chest, bent down, pulled a knife from his boot. Slipping it open, he whispered: "Help me," and indicated the Balamb Garden insignia and embroidery across his shoulders, chest, and upper arms. Eiada took the knife, slit the stitches holding the patches to the uniform shirt. Taking the knife back, Roen pulled the fabric away from his chest and made a jagged cut down the front, barely following the zipper track already there. With the shirt butchered and chopped open and his undershirt showing through, it looked like he was following some obscure fashion from Esthar or Deling City- certainly nothing a little backwater like Dollet would have seen before.  
  
"Nice touch," Arin said quietly. "Now move it!"  
  
Pocketing the knife (and a fistful of gil), Roen peeked into the street. Nodding back at the others, he shoved his hands in his pockets and swaggered across the street. Eiada was impressed- he looked just like every jackass her age when she went back to Winhill for the winter.  
  
A tense five minutes later, Roen was back, sauntering across the street like his only concern was whether or not he had enough gil left to catch a vid. "Room two-oh-nine," he said triumphantly.  
  
The group made a communal sound of relief as the sky rumbled overhead and it began to rain.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Eiada stood under the water for a long time. She didn't know how long- it felt like hours. The room was filled with steam, every white tile glistening with its own sheen of sweat. The walls of the shower, thick marbled imitation glass, had been weeping silent streams of condensation for awhile.  
  
Eiada stretched carefully, trying to release all the tension of the past hour under the onslaught of hot water. Getting everyone into the hotel room had been nearly as nerve-wracking as getting into Dollet itself. Roen had insisted they not show up in a group, to the aggravation of them all. He had given Eiada the key and she'd sauntered in after standing under a gutter for a few moments to get the seawater off herself. Suffering from what she was sure were the first stages of hypothermia, she made pleasant small talk with the desk clerk, who absolutely had to get her a warm mug of coffee before she let Eiada flee to her room in peace. She'd run up the stairs and down the hall, spent a panicked thirty seconds prying the ancient window open, and thrown the key down to Arin and Iyan, who had been waiting patiently for ten minutes in a rapidly growing puddle in the street. They had rushed in, Iyan wrapped in an oilcloth disguise, his 'age' excusing the limp. Roen had come up last, and without incident.  
  
Damn, it had been a big day.  
  
She stood awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, wanting only to fall asleep and wake up in her bed at Garden, wanting the heat and the steam and the scream of water in old pipes to wash her away, wanting.  
  
Nothing. Oblivion.  
  
She leaned forward, pressed her forehead against the cool white tile of the wall. The cold bit into her forehead, seeped into the ache that had settled in her skull a few hours ago. In her mind, she saw the SeeD scout boats pull against the current and vanish over the horizon. The headache flared up again. (Shit.) Closing her eyes, she tried to think of something else.  
  
(Something else!) The panic festering in her mind screamed at the top of its tinny, nails-on-a-blackboard voice. (You're stuck on a foreign continent, in an occupied town, with soldiers of your national enemy looking for you and no idea how you're going to get home! What else is there to think about?!)  
  
Her lips twisted up wryly. Panic had a point. (And I've been stewing in here long enough.) She twisted the faucet to the 'off' position, slid the mock-glass door open. The bathroom was filled with steam. She barely made out a pink figure emerging from the bathroom mirror when the swirls of steam obscured her vision.  
  
Eiada groped her way over to the window, opened it a crack. Muffled Dollet night-sounds rolled through the room- cars, light rain, distant laughter. She took a deep breath of cool air, the scent of the sea and wet sidewalk filling her lungs. A lonely, quiet smell. She swallowed a wave of sadness- no, sharper. Grief, she decided. (God damn.) What did she have to mourn?  
  
Suddenly aware she was standing naked next to a window, Eiada moved back to the mirror by the sink. The fog had cleared, and she stared back warily at herself. (Why?) An unfamiliar voice asked. (Who were you expecting to see?)  
  
Her body looked the same- it was the skin that was different. Her limbs and torso were laced and lacerated with bruises of different colors. Blue, purple, green, black. even one of banana yellow with red dots all through. If she remembered correctly, she'd gotten that one slipping on her way down the rocky hills into Dollet. (That's gonna suck tomorrow morning.)  
  
She sighed. She was sore enough already, but she knew it would only get worse from here. Her body was crossed with scratches and two genuines sword slashes, one on her left bicep and one across her thigh. She poked at the latter gingerly. It was swolled and soft pink with heat, but it was clean. Hopefully, it would heal neatly.  
  
Grabbing a towel, Eiada scrubbed at her short black hair. Despite her rough wash in the gutter, it had been so full of sea salt and sweat it had been practically gray when they arrived at the hotel. Now it had regained its usual blue-black sheen. Besides her face, it was the only part of her body untouched by the day. Just out of habit, she reached up to scratch the scar hidden at the base of her hairline. (Thinking of you, Uncle Wage,) she thought automatically. She'd gained that scar the day her uncle had nearly been lost at sea.  
  
(The sea was dark, irony blue-green. It mirrored the sky, which had been ushering lightening and thunder and mayhem towards the small fishing village all day. The winds plastered her waterproof rain slicker to her body as Eiada raced down the slippery dock. Her uncle was a tiny, fragile figure at the end, bent across the deck of one of the smallest boats. Her heart in her mouth, she could barely hear herself screaming over the rain as a huge wave towered up over the dock, sweeping Uncle Wage's prone form off the boat and into the sea.)  
  
Caught up in memory, she stared blankly at the mirror until someone pounded at the door.  
  
"Eiada! Soup's on!"  
  
She jumped, snorted. "I bet." To save their (rather low) funds, they were eating ration bars from the AT packs. Someone must have gotten hungry and gone through the arduous task of unwrapping one, which inspired everyone else to eat as well. Of course, inviting Eiada to come eat with them was probably a subtle encouragement that she get out of the shower. (I'm not even hungry.)  
  
Eiada toweled herself off, pulled on her underwear, and grabbed a thin white robe off the hook on the back of the door. Sinching it around her waist, she picked up her clothes, opened the door, and stepped out into the hotle room.  
  
She'd expected it to be cold, but three bodies heated the air pretty well. Three faces turned to her, one with a ration bar poking out of his mouth. The silence, she realized, wasn't a happy one; Eiada was suddenly struck with the urge to lock herself back in the bathroom.  
  
The silence lasted until Arin levered himself up from the floor where he'd been sitting, back braced against the bureau. He snatched a ration bar from the top of the dresser, offered it to her. "Want one?" he asked, mouth full.  
  
Eiada took it hesitantly. Aware all eyes were on her. "Did I miss anything- ?"  
  
Lying sprawled on the bed nearest the bathroom, Iyan wriggled around, trying to get comfortable. "We thought we might stay here another day."  
  
Eiada did the math in her head. They had 3 AT packs with 1000 gil in each of them, and were staying in a 200 gil hotel. "Okay, why?"  
  
"Iyan should be off his feet for at least another day." Arin said firmly. "He needs at least that to heal naturally, then I can Cure the bone again and we'll see if he can walk then. If he can, he'll need a brace and a crutch."  
  
Iyan sighed, and Eiada smiled at him reluctantly. Sympathetic as she was to his injury, all she could think of was how difficult he would be to hide. (Even after tomorrow, he won't move very fast, either.) "So, tomorrow we just hang out here?"  
  
Roen looked up from his place at the windowseat, a perch he hadn't left all night. Their eyes met and Eiada swallowed. He looked frayed, exhausted, pissed off. "We have to get rid of our unis."  
  
Eiada clutched the Balamb Garden trainee uniform she held a little tighter. She bit her lower lip, trying to keep calm. Logically, she knew every article of Balamb G property she wore was an identifying tag in a hostile territory, and she should be rid of them as soon as possible. Emotionally, she didn't want to lose any reminder of home. She took a slow, deep breath. (Calm down and think.)  
  
She stared back at him, nodded. "What, we throw these-" she hefted her uniform. "-away?"  
  
Roen shook his head. "No, we-"  
  
Iyan cut in. "We cut off the Balamb insignia, and sell them in junk shops. More money for us and we'll use it to buy civvies."  
  
Eiada glanced at Roen, who nodded. He stood up, unfolding his lanky body from the windowseat. "Maybe we should turn in," he suggested. It carried the weight of a command. "We need to get an early start tomorrow." 


	7. Witching Hour

Eiada sat silently in the windowseat, staring at the street below. It had rained while she was in the shower, and now the buildings were wet, water running through the streets in pearly, gas-lit trails. The crack of sky Eiada could see above the building across the street was dark, ashy black.  
  
Someone rolled over in one of the three beds behind her. Tiny beds, jammed together to save space in a room too small for four people. After a moments consideration, she opened the window a crack then, defying protocol, turned to watch the sleepers.  
  
It was Arin who had rolled over, it seemed. He lay sprawled on his stomach, one arm trailing down into the six-inch gap between his bed and Roens. The tiny frown in the corner of his mouth made Eiada smile. Feeling self- indulgent, she turned back to the window. She had volunteered for the first watch, she reminded herself. She had to take it seriously, no matter how tired she was.  
  
A pair of young women, arm in arm, walked by below, laughing. From the second story, Eiada felt rude, intrusive, like a capricious spirit watching from above. (Just as untouchable, as invisible as a spirit.) Her thoughts had begun to wane.  
  
The women were gone, as were her thoughts of duty and protocol. Stray fragments of thought tumbled in and out of her skull like smoke, tiny wisps of darkness and regret that melted and turned pale in the overwarm room. She was nearly dozing.  
  
(Screw it.) She wanted to leave, to fall asleep there on the hard cushion, to let her tired brain and heavy heart weigh down a pillow, not her thoughts.  
  
Another couple walked by, a man and a woman now. Eiada felt guilty about watching, but had nothing else to do. Each of them wore heavy coats and pants, their breath streaming out in front of them.  
  
She stared as they stopped under a streetlight to kiss carefully. It had begun to rain again and they broke apart, laughing, and dashed down the street. In the warm, dry room above the ground, Eiada felt a pang behind her lungs.  
  
The street was empty again. She felt pretty empty herself. A combination of exhaustion and loneliness had set itself deep behind her heart, filling her core with cool water. A familiar longing tugged around her ribs. She would give damn near anything to laugh in the rain under a streetlight.  
  
(.Forget.) she commanded herself halfheartedly. (Forget.)  
  
Like there was anything to forget in the first place.  
  
Her eyes slid closed. She woke up when her forehead came into contact with the cold glass of the windowpane, shocking adrenaline and ice into her system. Taking a deep breath, she rubbed her eyes.  
  
Taking one last look at the street, she decided there weren't any Galbadian soldiers lying in wait for her to leave the window and thirty seconds could be spared getting a glass of water. Standing awkwardly, she tiptoed in her socks across the cool carpet, squeezing between the bureau and the three beds and praying she didn't fall on all three of them.  
  
She didn't bother turning the light on in the bathroom- she could see well enough with the lights coming off the street to find the glass and the faucet tap. She turned the water on slowly to keep from making too much noise. Bending over the sink, she thought she heard something- faint as a breath of air, a brush of sound from out in the bedroom.  
  
"Stop-"  
  
She turned, dropping her shoulders and bending her knees, preparing to throw herself forward, behind the protective cover of the beds if necessary. Apparently someone had decided to utilize those free thirty seconds.  
  
Nothing moved in the bedroom. Eiada relaxed, swore under her breath. (I need to find some medium between paranoid and depressed.) Looking over the sleeping figures, she shook her head tiredly. (Probably someone talking in his sleep.)  
  
Taking her glass of water, she edged back into the main room. Taking a superstitious glance around, she checked the digital clock. Just past midnight. A shiver dragged cold fingernails up her spine. It was probably based in her seafaring roots- or her Uncle Wage had taught her all his superstition. (The witching hour,) she thought nervously, still staring at the clock. It was probably living on Dock Row down in Winhill- she'd seen sailors hardened twenty years on the sea sacrifice a handful of their own hair for a good wind in their sails. She didn't know if she believed in their superstitions or not. Better safe than sorry, she'd always thought.  
  
Of course, believing in a world that could be influenced by hair and hope and intention opened up possibilities for being sorry that the average Garden student didn't have to worry about. Memories of her Uncle's hands making shadow puppets on the wall in the shapes of demons, angry elementals, and unsettled ghosts played across her mind. She swallowed hard, sat back down on the windowseat. She was just tired enough to see ghosts, real or imaginary, waiting with grasping hands in every corner.  
  
"Hey." A warm breath crossed her ear.  
  
Eiada jumped about six feet in the air, stifling her shriek with both hands. Roen stared back, looking faintly surprised, as she whirled to face him.  
  
"Hyne, Roen, you scared the crap out of me!"  
  
"Sorry," he replied, voice rough with sleep. "I thought you'd heard me."  
  
"No, I didn't," she snapped, then calmed. "Sorry. I just- you scared me."  
  
"So I hear." He smiled faintly. "Anyway, I'm ready to take your watch."  
  
Eiada glanced at the clock, raised an eyebrow. "But- yours doesn't start for another hour."  
  
He followed her gaze to the red digital numbers glaring across the room, nodded. Was he blushing? In the darkness, it was hard to tell. "I know. I- I'm not tired, is all."  
  
Eiada put two and two together. (Someone talking in their sleep plus Roen awake and maybe embarrassed-) "Bad dream?"  
  
He snorted self-mockingly, shrugged.  
  
"What about?"  
  
"Nothing. Not important."  
  
"Ooookay." She tried a smile. "Care to join the windowseat party?"  
  
"Sure." He hoisted himself up on the tough cushion beside her, stared out over the street.  
  
There was a moment of fairly awkward silence.  
  
It was funny- in a situation as innocuous as a time-passing conversation, words deserted her entirely. She had a sudden, fierce longing to be facing down Galbadian soldiers on the beach again. She'd known what to say then.  
  
"So, I guess I should thank you for waking up," Eiada managed after a panicked moment. "For waking me up, really. I was almost asleep there."  
  
"Oh-" he glanced up. "Sure, I guess. This is, uh-" he gestured out at the street. "-pretty boring, huh?"  
  
Eiada snorted. "Yeah. I'm glad I took first watch- this'll put me right to sleep."  
  
Roen didn't seem to hear, still staring at the rain-glazed street. "Better boring than the alternative."  
  
Eiada bit her lower lip, sobering. "Yeah, I guess. Hey-" she snapped to get his attention. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing," he replied in a tone she knew all too well. The tell-them-what- they-want-to-hear-because-I-don't-want-to-answer tone.  
  
"No, really," she pressed. "It's gotta be more interesting than watching this damn street all night."  
  
He smiled halfheartedly. "It's- I dunno. I kind of miss the nightmare."  
  
"Why?"  
  
He glanced back over his shoulder, into the darkened room. "Because I always know I can wake up from a nightmare."  
  
It was amazing, how one sentence could change the entire tone of a conversation. All of a sudden, her light time-passing banter had become something much more serious.  
  
"Are you afraid?" The question was stupid, and entirely too personal, from her point of view, to ask someone she'd just met that morning. (Hyne- was it this morning? It feels like years ago.)  
  
Roen's face changed, and Eiada prepared herself for an indignant denial or laughter, some expression of wasted bravado. "Yeah," he finally said, leaning against the window a little. "But I'm not sure what of." He looked at her. The only expression she could read off his face was faintly quizzical. "Are you?"  
  
Eiada looked out over the street, remembering ghosts and boats and laughing couples.  
  
"You bet."  
  
"Of?"  
  
She shrugged. "Not getting home again. Getting caught. Dying."  
  
"Everyone's afraid of dying."  
  
(I didn't use to be,) she thought glumly. (I never had to worry about it.) "I dunno. I keep telling myself that full SeeDs go through this, too. This is why the whole MIA acronym was made up. But then this little voice goes-"  
  
"'You're not a full SeeD yet!'" He finished. "I think I know what you mean."  
  
She smiled halfheartedly. "I know. And I know we're done with the training and everything, so there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to get along as well as any SeeD on their first mission, but this kind of shit isn't supposed to happen on the first mission! We're supposed to stay in the rear, pick up the pieces of everyone else's fight, you know?"  
  
Roen shrugged. "I know how you feel. I feel the same way. But when I start getting depressed, I tell myself- 'it did happen, there's no way around it, so we have to cope.'"  
  
Eiada turned to look at him. His blue-green eyes seemed perfectly calm, and perfectly honest. Genuine. She swallowed. "You're right, I know. I guess I just needed to hear it from someone else before I could start to believe it."  
  
He gave her a small smile. "By my way of thinking, admitting how bad it really is is just setting yourself up to fail. Sometimes all you have is hope."  
  
"And bullheadedness."  
  
He laughed. "That, too. Need lots of that." His eyes moved to the clock on the bureau. "Your watch is over."  
  
Taking the hint, she stood carefully on stiff legs. "And I am definitely ready for bed."  
  
"Night, Eiada."  
  
"Night." Peeling the towel off her head, she slipped into the bed in her robe. It was warm and dark and she felt her conciousness slipping down into the cracks and crevices of her brain to hide. The pillow smelled like shampoo and spice, reminding her that someone else had slept in her bed.  
  
"Roen?"  
  
She heard him look up from the window. "Hm?"  
  
The words dragged out from a long way away. "Thanks. for th' pep talk."  
  
He chuckled again. Her last thought was that he had a really nice laugh. "Good night, Eiada." 


	8. Shopping and Takeout

The next morning came slowly, edging gray clouds with gold and illuminating the clean-scrubbed sky. Eiada woke to find Arin sleeping at the windowsill and her entire body one giant ache. In the shadowy remnants of the night before, she made coffee and woke the others.  
  
Seven cups of coffee and four really bad continental breakfasts later, Eiada and Roen bundled what remained of their uniforms into a stripped down AT pack and set off. They sold all the practical gear (mostly extra AT supplies) for a grand total of 1695 gil in a trashy military supply outlet off the main streets, and went to find civilian clothes for the entire group.  
  
There was something wonderfully normal about shopping on a Saturday morning, Eiada realized. Ignoring the facts that she was wearing a butchered SeeD trainee uniform cut roughly the same as Roen's and they both took great pains to stay away from the windows, she could have been bargain hunting in Winhill. She found herself lighthearted after the longest day and night of her life, smiling at the cashier and teasing Roen about his essentially colorblind methods of choosing clothing.  
  
They shopped from eleven until three, together and apart, never on the main roads. Eiada came away from a thrift store with a pair of solid, serviceable jeans that were just a little too long in the leg, but had extra pockets. Roen insisted on pockets, his rationale being that three identical packs on four people made them look like a group as well as uniforms did. Therefore, as few packs as possible. They found Iyan a warm red greatcoat long enough to wear over his undershirt and Balamb G pants with pockets riddling the inside. Arin got a long, oversized tan vest and a pair of brown pants- more pockets. Roen settled on a loose blue flight jacket that more or less matched his Balamb uni pants. Eiada scrounged up a tight waterproof jacket that fell to the tops of her thighs and had a hood. It was a light silvery purple. She felt fairly guilty about having to buy two articles of clothing when all the others only had one, but she could hardly go traipsing cross-country in a skirt.  
  
Their last stop was back in the military supply store to sell Roen and Eiada's Balamb uniforms, which brought in 200 more gil. As she changed into the civvies in the dingy gray bathroom, Eiada tried to figure out how much four boat tickets back to Balamb would cost. She had no idea- Uncle Wage always bought her tickets home every summer.  
  
"How do I look?" she asked Roen as she stepped out of the bathroom, zipping up the from of the coat and striking a pseudo-model pose.  
  
He looked her over carefully. "Normal," he pronounced.  
  
"Such a sweet talker," she grumbled teasingly, picking up her shopping bags and nudging the door open with her hip.  
  
"Back to the room, then?" she asked as they stepped out onto the street. "No birthday presents to buy? No window shopping you want to do?"  
  
Roen gave her an odd look. "Eiada. Do you know where we are?"  
  
"Come on, I'm trying-" she lowered her voice. "-to act normal. Like an everyday citizen who doesn't have anything better to do than shop on a Saturday morning. Besides, this is the first time in twenty-four hours I'm fed, rested, and not being shot at, slashed, chased, or assaulted in any way. Excuse me for being in a good mood."  
  
"I'm just saying not to be too noticeable." he said as they crossed the street, narrowly avoiding a public bus seemingly on the rampage. "We don't want anyone to remember us."  
  
"And I'm just saying people are more likely to remember us if we're silent and polite everywhere we go. We're teenagers, we're supposed to be loud and rude and self-centered. It's the way of nature."  
  
He cracked a smile. "Point. I think I'm done. Do you want to get takeout for all of us for lunch? It's gotta be cheaper than room service."  
  
Eiada's stomach growled at the thought of greasy fries and noodles. She hadn't eaten much at breakfast- food before a certain hour just made her queasy. "Absolutely."  
  
They stopped in a pseudo-rural takeout joint, full of people and light and the scream of frying grease. It was just before three, and it seemed every other teenage shopper in Dollet had the same craving for salt and carbs. The line in front of the counter was practically out the door, which didn't do much for Roen's paranoia and Eiada's stomach- the fried food smell nearly had her knifing people to get to the counter.  
  
"Look at that." Roen said as the line crept slowly forward, elbowing Eiada and jerking his chin at the television set into the corner joining roof and wall above the counter. The sound was off, but subtitles lined the bottom of the picture. Red, green, yellow, and blue fireworks exploded on the screen.  
  
"Did they declare a new holiday or something?" Eiada wondered aloud. As far as she could recall the Galbadian calendar, there was nothing to celebrate for awhile yet.  
  
"No. Read."  
  
The line shuffled forward, and Eiada read. (...the commencement parade signifying the first day of a three-day national celebration welcoming the Sorceress Edea to the Deling Administration. Her role as Chief Advisor and International Relations Specialist is one never previously obtained by a woman, much less one with no outstanding political or military career.)  
  
Roen frowned. "A Sorceress?"  
  
"What the hell?" Eiada agreed. "Is that the Sorceress War type Sorceress?"  
  
"I hope not."  
  
Eiada went back to reading.  
  
(The first day of celebration with conclude this evening with the Sorceress' first public speech and a parade through Deling City. Stay tuned this afternoon- in one hour, the President himself will introduce the Sorceress over the first televised radio waves to be broadcast in decades!)  
  
"Hey!" Eiada exclaimed, startling the rest of the line.  
  
"Hey!" Roen agreed in a very convincing stoned teenager voice. "They're having a rice sale!"  
  
"Can I take your order?" An obnoxiously chipper young woman asked from behind the counter.  
  
"Dude, yeah," Roen husked. "Rice. Hella rice."  
  
"And some fries," Eiada added, catching the hint. "And a bucket of chicken wings. Four large sodas."  
  
They paid in silence, took their plastic bags, and fled.  
  
"Did you read that?" Eiada exclaimed as they double-timed it down the street. "They're using radio waves to broadcast a television announcement! That must be why they worked so hard to keep the radio tower working yesterday! That makes sense, I guess, the cable broadcasts are expensive and not many people can afford them- Oh! They're trying to use radio waves to access the public with their Sorceress thing! Duh!"  
  
"Eiada."  
  
Train of thought derailed, she turned to him. "Yeah?"  
  
"Chill."  
  
"Okay, okay. I'm just wondering what this is going to do for the getting- out-of-the-country thing."  
  
Roen shrugged; an impressive feat given all the bags in his arms. "They'll probably up security on trains and boats."  
  
"But we're gonna have to risk at least one of either to get home, right?" Eiada asked, starting to walk again.  
  
"Well, yeah, but if we wait until things cool down security-wise it'll be easier. So, no mass transit for at least three days."  
  
"Okay, right. So what are we going to do? Walk around the country until the soldiers stop looking at us sideways?"  
  
Roen hiked up the bags in his arms, lengthened his stride to reach the hotel before it started to rain again. "That depends on where we're going." 


	9. Newscast

"This is good." Arin said around a mouthful of rice. "Greasy takeout, just what the healer ordered."  
  
"That's what we were thinking," Eiada said from her perch on the bed, watching the TV as Roen flipped through channel after channel to find more information about the Sorceress. It seemed every network was running coverage of that morning's parade.  
  
"When did you say this speech thing was going to happen?" Iyan asked, splitting a pair of chopsticks apart.  
  
"Sixteen hundred," Roen replied distantly.  
  
Eiada glanced at the clock. Three forty-five. "Maybe you need to settle on one channel for awhile, then."  
  
"I know." Clicking to a news station, he thumbed up the volume. "I'm just bored."  
  
Eiada settled against the pillows next to Iyan as the newscaster's voice filled the room. "How's the leg?"  
  
"Loads better. He-" Iyan jerked a thumb at the back of Arin's head- all they could see of the young Healer who had cramped himself between the bed and the bureau to be nearer the TV. "-can do wonders with a Cure spell and some painkillers."  
  
"Crutch, brace, and one final spell and he'll be able to walk tomorrow," Arin mumbled tiredly.  
  
Iyan glanced at Eiada. "I think he wore himself out today," he whispered.  
  
Eiada nodded back, reached for a takeout box.  
  
"Here we go," Roen announced a few minutes later- not that they hadn't all been watching the television anyway. (He really is itchy,) Eiada thought, concerned, then turned her attention to the screen.  
  
The President was on, standing behind a podium, looking dour and official, bloated with his self-importance in the manner of every usurper. He said a few clichéd phrases about Galbadia's future, added something about a brighter tomorrow, and was proud to introduce-  
  
"Holy crap!" Iyan shot straight up from the bed as the camera angle shifted dramatically- almost as if someone had knocked it off it's stand to the floor. "Is that Seifer?"  
  
A blond man in a white coat had charged into the studio, it seemed. He did look familiar. "Seifer Almasy? As in, the DC guy?" Eiada asked, eyes riveted to the screen. It did look like him. "Why's he there?"  
  
"Holy CRAP!" Iyan repeated with slightly different inflection. "Is that Instructor Trepe?"  
  
"Yes, quiet!" Roen exclaimed.  
  
They listened avidly for a moment. Instructor Trepe verbally shoved the studio employees away- apparently Almasy was holding President Deling hostage (Which earned another "Holy crap," from Iyan). The petite blonde Instructor turned to the camera, calling out to someone.  
  
"A SeeD team in Timber?" Eiada murmured, surprised. "What the hell's going on?"  
  
After a moment's persuasion, Almasy's boot tramped past the camera, followed by Instructor Trepe's. The President was nowhere to be seen. There was a moment of confused white noise, then the camera cut out and was replaced by a newscaster's nondescript face.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, you just witnessed an attack on President Deling by assailants whose identities are currently unknown. Sources from the capital have yet to release a statement at this time, and we have no knowledge of the President's welfare. We're currently checking our sources and we'll have more news for you after this commercial."  
  
Roen muted the television, and a shocked silence descended on the room, heavy and dark as a shroud.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Two hours later, according to the newsfaces, one of the attackers had been caught and executed. The revelation of that little tidbit had caused another grim silence.  
  
"Who d'you think it was?" Iyan finally said into the night.  
  
"I hope it wasn't Instructor Trepe," Arin whimpered.  
  
"I'm more worried about what whoever it was told them." Roen murmured almost to himself. "What if they know they were from Garden?"  
  
"Thank you, mister sensitive," Iyan murmured.  
  
Roen spun to face him. "Look, I'm just trying to be practical, okay?"  
  
"Do you even care that someone we know could be dead?"  
  
"Yeah, I do, but I can't do anything about it. At this point, all I can do is work out my way to survive. That's what being a mercenary is, Iyan. That's what being a SeeD is." He fell silently so quickly the 'Remember?' everyone was waiting for floated in the air before falling to the ground.  
  
Iyan frowned, understanding but obviously not in a big hurry to accept.  
  
"Roen," Eiada said quietly from where she sat on the bed. "what are we going to do now?"  
  
Faces turned to her, and she felt a pang of annoyance at being forgotten. Swinging her legs off the bed, she went to stand by the window. Outside, the night shrouded street and buildings deep purple, no longer the dark blue-black of the rainstorm. "I mean, just to be safe, let's assume they know we're from Garden. By my way of thinking, now we're out of our last excuse. If we'd been caught, we could have told them we were SeeDs on a mission and had lost our contract. They would have called Balamb G to check, right? But now they'll probably arrest us for conspiracy to commit a crime or something just because we're from Garden. So, what do we do? It's going to be a hell of a lot harder to get around the country now than it ever might have been before."  
  
"And the hits just keep on coming." Iyan muttered. "If we need to hide, our options are kind of short. Where are we going to find a place in Galbadia not loyal enough to turn us in?"  
  
He raised a point. The four teenagers glanced at each other.  
  
"It's not that we need a place to hide," Arin offered timidly. "We need a place to resupply and get word back to Garden if we can. Somewhere where people'll be willing to help Garden folk, to, you know, take care of us."  
  
"Galbadia Garden," Iyan breathed.  
  
Eiada glanced up from the window. "That sounds nice, but let's not forget that Galbadia Garden is located smack dab in the middle of, surprise, surprise, Galbadia."  
  
"I don't know," Roen said. "Gardens are privately funded, they aren't related to the government of a country at all. Look at Trabia- there isn't a government up there, just villages with their own rules. In this case, Garden loyalty might win out over patriotism."  
  
"Even with the new threat of the Sorceress?" Eiada asked doubtfully. "I don't know, I don't think we can trust people we've never met, and who've never met us, to keep us safe. It makes us too vulnerable."  
  
"I've met them." Roen said simply. "I transferred from Galbadia G, remember?"  
  
They stared at each other for a minute. Roen seemed confused, almost surprised she was challenging him. Eiada saw his point, but she still thought there was a better way, a safer way, to get home than throwing her life into the hands of strangers and hoping they didn't drop it.  
  
"Do you have a better idea?" he asked. "Does anyone?"  
  
Silence reigned supreme.  
  
"Galbadia G it is, then," Arin sighed. 


End file.
